A Big Thinker's Event - "Honest Signals" by Alex ("Sandy") Pentland

Abstract

How can you know when someone is bluffing? Paying attention? Genuinely interested? The answer is that subtle patterns in how we interact with other people reveal our attitudes toward them. These predictive patterns seem to be biologically based "honest signals," evolved from ancient primate signaling mechanisms, and we find that they are major factors in human decision making in situations ranging from job interviews to first dates. By analyzing these signals using data from mobile phones, electronic ID badges, or digital media, we can create a "gods eye" view of how the people in organizations interact, and even `see' the rhythms of interaction for everyone in a city.

About Alex ("Sandy") Pentland
Professor Alex ("Sandy") Pentland is a pioneer in mobile information systems, organizational engineering, and computational social science. Sandy's focus is the development of human-centered technology, and the creation of ventures that take this technology into the real world.

He directs the Human Dynamics Lab, and oversees the Next Billion Network, established to support aspiring entrepreneurs in emerging markets, and the EPROM entrepreneurship program in Africa. He is among the most-cited computer scientists in the world, and in 1997 Newsweek magazine named him one of the 100 Americans likely to shape this century.

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